Tsimshian Mask – Royal Ontario Museum, Bloor Street, Toronto, Ontario

According to the museum’s information panel, this mask of a human face is the work an anonymous 19th century artist of the Tsimshian people, who live in the lower Skeena River region of north-western British Columbia. The mask is made of wood, brass, hair, and paint.

The panel goes on to explain that masks carved as human faces may in some cases represent portraits of actual people. However, the majority of the human masks represent mythic ancestors and this mask may have been part of a dance series dramatizing spirit beings. Along the coast, masks reflect regional and tribal styles and this Tsimshian mask is characterized by the sloping forehead, arched and thin eyebrows, round, open eyes, and the rounded pyramid shaped cheeks.

Tsimshian art, culture and language are is making a comeback. Like other coastal peoples, the Tsimshian fashion most of their traditional goods out of Western red cedar.